De los Ángeles: The 19th Century Repertoire

As might be guessed from the previous articles about the Warner Classics anthology of albums of Victoria de los Ángeles, her nineteenth-century repertoire is considerably richer than that of earlier periods. Once again, the selections are distributed over multiple CDs. However, while only seven of those CDs contributed to her classical repertoire, the nineteenth-century selections are distributed across thirteen CDs, including the first two CDs accounting for 78 RPM recordings.

What I found particularly interesting is that her Zarzuela Arias CD includes a selection from the nineteenth century. This repertoire, which is known (at least by Wikipedia) as “Romantic” zarzuela dates back to 1850, suggesting that the earlier compositions in the repertoire deserve more than one track. Nevertheless, one track is better than none at all!

Once again, pianist Gerald Moore’s “retirement recital” album is one of the more sparkling jewels in the crown of the overall collection. As was already observed, de los Ángeles was joined by soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau; and there was no shortage of good spirits, occasionally enhanced by good humor. This was most evident in the “Duetto buffo di due gatti” (duet for two cats), composed by Robert Lucas de Pearsall (but formerly attributed to Gioachino Rossini). However, the “mother of all gags” came when de los Ángeles swapped positions with Moore, taking to the piano to accompany Moore singing (sic) “Ich grolle nicht” from Robert Schumann’s Opus 48 Dichterliebe.

I should also observe that, whatever the shortcomings in recording technology, the 78 RPM tracks provide the one opportunity to listen to de los Ángeles singing the music of Richard Wagner. There are actually two tracks that she recorded. The first was “Einsam in trüben Tagen” from the first act of Lohengrin, followed by “Dich, teure Halle” from Tannhäuser. For both of these tracks, Anatole Fistoulari conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra. De los Ángeles found just the right rhetoric of expressiveness for each of these selections. Her Wikipedia page says nothing about Lohengrin. However, she did perform at the Bayreuth Festival, making her debut as Elisabeth in the 1961 staging of Tannhäuser. Nevertheless, her favorite opera was never performed at Bayreuth, since that was Georges Bizet’s Carmen, for which she sang the title role and recorded it in 1958!

Personal preferences aside, it would be fair to say that the entire gamut of nineteenth-century selections amounts to a something-for-everybody collection; and de los Ángeles clearly knew how to make the most out of the many tracks she recorded of this genre.